SIR

I was chatting with him few days back & he asked, “What’s the topic of next blog?” I said, “May be, you.” Shockingly he asked, “Me? Why me?” And I said, “Why not you?”

He is my professor from engineering college, Prof. Tanavade. This is his formal introduction. But for me, he is a teacher, mentor, Godfather, guide, best friend….. the list of roles he has been playing in my life is endless.

I don’t know when I first met him, but I think we both noticed each other when I drew a neat diagram in one exam, and although wrongly drawn, he showed it to the class for its neatness. My association with him started that day, and the bond between us continues to grow strong even after 15 years of completion of my college.

Unlike most of the teachers, he has very friendly nature, and at the same time he manages to maintain respect in the minds of his students. We used to share almost anything & everything in our lives with him & he used to listen to all our senseless talks with enthusiasm & curiosity. He is an excellent teacher and he is equally interested in music, poetry, books, drama, sports. I still remember one evening we students spent at his house listening to him sing beautiful songs.

Recently, when I was collecting material on ‘teacher’s qualities’ for one of my program for school teachers, almost all qualities mentioned reminded me of him & came to know why he is a great teacher.

I still ask for his advice whenever confused or not sure of my decisions. All my blog posts including this one have gone to him for reading & approval & are then posted here.

He has taught me to read, write, listen, sing, speak, love, live life. Major part of my personality & my life is how it is because of him.

Saying ‘thank you’ to him will not be enough, but still, Thank you, Sir.

AN EMPOWERED WOMAN

I heard someone saying that state government gives pension to widows & divorcees & told my maid Gayatri that she is eligible for this pension. The reply I got from her was surprising. She said, “I am capable of earning enough money for me & my sisters right now. So I don’t need it currently. Some lady in need may benefit if I don’t take it.” I was speechless hearing the answer.

Second incident happened when her younger sister took admission to Computer engineering. We offered her help & brought her sister a laptop. She accepted the help happily. But after some months, she gave me some amount of money & said, “This is part payment of the laptop. I will return you the total money in installments.” When I said that I don’t need the money back, she replied, “I know you will give me any amount of money whenever I need it, but I should have self-respect not to beg for things when I am capable of earning them.” This time also I was speechless.

Her family is of eight ladies. Two of her sisters are graduate, one doing post-graduation, and youngest one will be a Computer engineer in few months.

Gayatri is a complete package of self-respect, strength, wisdom, determination, selflessness, empathy and many more qualities. Her family is an example of woman power. They don’t know about feminism, independence, equal rights, financial security & all such things. But they all are living an empowered life.

Ladies, let's empower ourselves & ladies around us.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE

Life!!! A four letter word that summarizes the experiences of human beings.
Each & every human being, from weakest to strongest, from poorest to richest, lives the life given to him. But how many of us have the capability to “celebrate life”, to live the life to the fullest?
The word ‘celebration’ has certain misconceptions associated with it. Celebration is something we do after achieving some huge success (material success, most of the times) in life. Does it mean I should be successful or wait to be successful to celebrate life?
Celebration to us means spending money, throwing lavish parties, exotic vacations. Does it mean I need to be rich or wait to be rich to celebrate life?
Does this all make sense?
The answer to these questions is a big NO.

Celebration should be a way of living life. I can & should celebrate if I exercise well, if I cook well, if a tiny flower blossoms in my garden, if I achieve my day’s target, if I create a painting, if I hear a good news from my friend. I can find hundreds of reasons to celebrate life every moment.
And I can celebrate in hundreds of ways too. I can celebrate by sipping a cup of hot coffee, by listening to my favourite music, by eating a piece of chocolate, by talking to my friends, by taking a walk in nature, by complementing others, by admiring the beauty of flower in my garden, by taking a nap, by thanking God, by spending time with self, by doing something I like….and all this will hardly cost anything.

The joy, pleasure, happiness, motivation, positivity I will get by celebrating each moment of my life will be valuable & long lasting. I will need no vacations, holidays, special time for celebration if I admire & enjoy each & every moment of my life.